Secondly, filmmakers worthy of the name all note the films they pay homage to, and never claim to be original when they are not. George Lucas, Steven Spielberg, and virtually all other directors in this genre, borrow, re-imagine, or often put on screen what the originators could only dream about. Fritz Lang never imagined a film shot without any film at all, a movie existing only in a computer, until transferred to film for theaters using projection methodology that Fritz would still easily recognize today. The creators of, "The Matrix", had their cast read books by science fiction legends and watch films to understand the fictional world they were trying to create. Lucas spent three years studying a variety of legends, myths, and religions prior to writing, "A New Hope" or Episode IV.

Many purveyors of home theater hardware have made this film a staple to show off just how good a film can look and sound when utilizing today's technology that will fit in to your home. The movie is gorgeous to watch, the special effects are virtually seamless, and carry the film when the story or even the actors struggle to make certain moments work. Bruce Willis often seems on the verge of laughing during the earlier portions of the film, but again, the whole package does function.

Tom Lister Jr., was the only player I found painful to watch, if an actor has appeared more bored and lost in a film I have not seen it. Thankfully he is a small part of a great cast that includes Gary Oldman in one of the stranger, quirk-filled characters in film, Bruce Willis, a pre, "Rush Hour", Chris Tucker, Mila Jovovich, who even prior to learning English in the film is a riot to listen to and very pleasant to look at. And then there are a host of strong supporting roles, many by faces that normally are found on high fashion magazine covers, and then the strangest part of all, the blink twice and you will miss him Luke Perry.

The transfer to DVD is very good, but again I would suggest seeking out the improved, "Super Bit" version. If the hardware you watch films on is up to it, the new format is worth the effort to find, and the better your equipment the worse a lesser transfer will appear. Keeping a balance between top quality source material, and not having your hardware runaway is getting harder all the time, especially with films being produced on digital video, and then being transferred directly to DVD, no film, no analog, no compromise.

This film is fun, at times over the top, but if taken as intended, a feast for the eyes, a funky soundtrack, and a script that should not be taken too seriously, as it has been done countless times before, this is a very good way to spend 126 minutes. And finally, Diva Plavalaguna is a slick and original piece of the film, and her performance will always be a noted slice of this flick.


How to tell the difference between the old and the remastered   August 7, 2007
 78 out of 81 found this review helpful

"how can you tell the difference between the old and new packaging?" It's a good question because outside of a few minor visual clues there's nothing obvious that really separates the discs from one another, at least not until you know what to look for. First off the new disc has a TrueHD logo on the back, the original obviously didn't. The security tape across the top of the disc case reads "FIFTH ELEMENT, THE RMSTD BD" on the new version, the catalog number on the spine of the re-master is 21520, the originals catalog number was 15018 and lastly the bottom border (front cover) area that contains the "Experience High Definition" slogan is set against a silver/foil background on the re-master versus a flat gray border on the original.



poor transfer to blu-ray   June 26, 2006
 64 out of 90 found this review helpful

Poor transfer to blu-ray, quality is comparable to the dvd version. Don't waste your money on the blu-ray version.